After receiving an incredible response from the entirety of Canada four years ago, Palliative Manitoba is hoping the community will lend a helping hand once again to help recognize children who are grieving.
Palliative Manitoba is an organization that helps people grieve those who they lost and to assist those nearing the end of their journey.
"We provide volunteer visitors, one-on-one telephone support," says Linsday Felstead, development coordinator at Palliative Manitoba. "We've got kid's grief group programming. We also have a slate of educational programs and a resource library here in our offices that focus on end-of-life care, dying and grief literature."
Felstead says that children and teens grieve differently than adults do and it needs to be recognized and dealt with in the appropriate manner. Palliative Manitoba helps them come to terms with their loss and gives them tools that work for them to move forward and deal with future struggles.
As part of their children's grief program, Palliative Manitoba has joined together with Canadian Virtual Hospice for their initiative called "Warm Memory Scarves." It first began in 2019 with a call-out to all Manitoba crafters, and Felstead says it was her first social media post ever and the response was incredible.
Palliative Manitoba provides those interested with the knit and crochet pattern for the scarves with mittens on the ends, and what this does is recognize children and their lost loved ones, it keeps them close to them.
Originally, Palliative Manitoba was meant to be the collection site for Manitoba only, however, the Facebook post went viral and she had people inquiring about the call-out nationally and internationally. The goal was to get 200 scarves, however, they ended up receiving 1200 and were able to supply programs across the country.
"But we're finally down to our last few dozen and it's time to restock and make sure that we've got what we need for the upcoming year."
For those interested in donating their time and making these warm memory scarves, find the patterns at https://palliativemanitoba.ca/calling-all-crafters/.
Celebrating 40 years
Palliative Manitoba is also celebrating 40 years of operation by planning a variety of events the community can participate in.
What's happening right now is their "Seeding our Future" initiative, which is perfect for those wanting to prepare their garden. There are kits of seeds for a number of different interests, like homemade salsa, your kid's first garden, making a garden to attract butterflies and more!
All proceeds go towards an endowment fund, ensuring the dying and bereaved in Manitoba continue to have the support, services and information they need.
This will be available until the end of April.
Later this summer, Palliative is also planning an event called "Love Takes Flight." Those interested can reserve a butterfly to release on June 29.
The butterfly represents a symbol of change and transformation. They are released as a tangible way of commemorating the new life people begin in the absence of their loved ones that have passed.
Tickets for this event go on sale on Tuesday, April 11.
Thu, May 2, 9:00 AM
Full-time, Education
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